Electronic components are often assembled and interconnected on a flat surface known as a circuit board. Circuit boards are typically divided into two broad categories: those intended for prototype or experimental circuits; and those intended for production or commercial sale. Circuit boards used for experimental work are often referred to as breadboards, which allow engineers to construct circuits quickly and often without regard to efficiency of component layout. In contrast, circuit boards intended for commercial sale typically have highly reliable wires and interconnects, permanent bonds to all components, or at least their mounts, and topographies amenable to mass production and thorough testing. Further, these circuit boards are typically made of a material that is reliable, low-cost, and easy to manufacture, typically a fiberglass substrate with copper wires etched from laminated copper sheets. Components are permanently affixed to production boards using a soldering process. The Digilab board is a simple example of such a board.
Though printed circuit board design of a circuit board intended for production involves many considerations including circuit timing issues, voltage dividers, capacitive reactance, crosstalk simulations, and power supply voltages, these circuit boards offer several advantages such as consistency and modularity. A circuit board serves as a consistent, uniform surface on which to design. Additionally, after a circuit board has been designed, it may be included within innumerable exteriors, which are typically more economical to redesign than a circuit board design. As well, a circuit board may be small enough to serve as a modular component of a larger system, for example, a module of random access memory (RAM).
Devices, however, are progressing toward smaller sizes and, as a result, designers are pressed to condense the space requirements of the circuit boards and components while maintaining the organizational advantages. Further, more and more devices are being automated by incorporating circuit boards for increased functionality, many of which involve a diminutive size and weight to be incorporated feasibly. For example, the operable ease and usefulness of a combined personal digital assistant (PDA) and mobile phone may depend on the size.
Additionally, the ability to reduce size and weight of a circuit board device would facilitate further designs. For example, many times size restrictions may be imposed on a design engineer of a subcomponent of a larger system or a subcomponent to upgrade or improve an existing system. If the design engineer succeeds in including more effective circuitry with increased functionality into less space with less weight, the design engineer may accommodate a more robust product.
The resulting size of a design is limited by the size of the components necessary to implement the design as well as the circuit board(s). Components may include independently manufactured circuits, chips, or the like, to plug into the circuit board of the device and are typically combined with interconnects. Interconnects typically include electrically conductive material to carry electrical signals for power and/or communications between components.
One common type of component mounted on circuit board devices is a sensor. The design and manufacture of many sensors may involve highly specialized knowledge and techniques. As design engineers reduce the size of the sensors, the size of circuit boards adapted to interconnect the sensors with other components becomes a more significant design factor. When size is significant, because a circuit board device may not be reduced beyond the dimensions of its circuit board, some size or weight-sensitive devices may not feasibly incorporate a circuit board. Thus, such devices may not feasibly include some desired functionality.
In some cases, the inability to reduce a circuit board device is a critical problem. For example, currently because of size reduction restrictions, a pacer generator may be felt under the skin and a slight deformity of the skin can be visually noticed.
A solution to reduce size and weight of a circuit board device has been to fit more components onto a smaller circuit board by situating multiple layers of interconnects within an insulating material to connect components. However, this solution is not effective, for example, in a circumstance of very few components, layering the interconnects does not substantially condense the size or reduce the weight.
Therefore, there is a need for methods and arrangements capable of reducing size and weight of devices that include components and interconnects.